A second opinion on War of the Worlds, by Nick at Nite:

War of the Worlds -

Everything I need to know in life I learned from Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg. From Tom I learned: ladies like men who wear blue jeans, but no shirt to play beach volleyball; sometimes doctors are really doctors and not strippers; that it is a bad, bad thing to go uninvited to a kinky, sex party; there is no minority report; an M-60 machine gun makes a beautiful noise when it is fired out of the third floor window of a military school; and that we live in a cynical world. From Steven I learned: what a Goonie is; talking teddy bears are creepy; dinosaurs live in Costa Rica; you can marry women you cast in your movies; Richard Dreyfuss is old; and Harrison Ford is only cool and interesting when he is acting. I learned a little more from these two guys watching War of the Worlds: it doesn't matter what story these guys try to tell, they do it pretty well.

The premise of the movie is the same as the original. Aliens come to kill humans. The spin this time around is that the special effects are amazing. By "amazing," I mean this is some of the coolest stuff I have seen since Jurassic Park. The special effects are unique because Spielberg uses some of the CGI technology, but he also uses real people, helicopters, trucks, and more. He combines the old and new very well. This is a great summer blockbuster. You should see it on the big screen. I give it an "A."